Swiss Bank Documents Handed To Wikileaks
January 17th, 2011 Wikileaks is still in the game. Revelations about secret bank accounts to avoid taxation by wealthy individuals in the Cayman Islands branch of Julius Baer Group Ltd. are about to be exposed according to Julian Assange and whistleblower Rudolph Elmer. Wikileaks is going over the data given to them by Elmer and will release it in the next two weeks or so.
Elmer faces charges in Switzerland for fraud and breaking Swiss banking secrecy laws among other things.
Dutch media also has released Wikileaks information about American pressure to keep Dutch forces in Afghanistan.
There is no stopping the flow of information as long as there are brave individuals willing to step up and expose the secrets of the corporate world and nations. Living in a world where transnational corporations conspire with government leaders to promote profits before people, there is a great need to bring to the light of day any and all secrets that benefit the elites at the expense of the people. The elites don't like it, but we need to bring them down a notch and if this is the the only way, then so be it.
From Bloomberg
WikiLeaks to Publish Client Data From Ex-Julius Baer Banker
By Gavin Finch and Warren Giles - Jan 17, 2011 8:45 AM PT
WikiLeaks plans to release data on about 2,000 cross-border bank accounts provided by a former Julius Baer Group Ltd. employee, who says they may have been set up to evade taxes.
Rudolf Elmer, who was dismissed as chief operating officer by Julius Baer Bank & Trust Company Ltd. in the Cayman Islands in December 2002, handed over the information today, including data on 40 politicians, to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
"There will be a full revelation," Assange told reporters today in London, adding that the data will take at least two weeks to check and disseminate. Elmer "is a whistleblower and he has important things to say," he said.
Elmer will be tried on Jan. 19 in Zurich, charged with several counts of attempted duress, including threats to Julius Baer and its employees, as well as breaching Switzerland's banking secrecy laws.
To contact the reporters on this story: Gavin Finch in London at
gfinch@bloomberg.net; Warren Giles in Geneva at
wgiles@bloomberg.net http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-17/wikileaks-to-publish-client-data-from-ex-julius-baer-banker.htmlFrom the Guardian
WikiLeaks: the latest developments
Whistleblower Rudolf Elmer hands over Swiss bank documents,
Dutch media publishes Afghan cables
and more of today's WikiLeaks news and views
5.30pm: There is a Canada connection to the Iranian nuclear programme too. In August 2009, the US told its Ottowa embassy to pressure the Canadian government into blocking the sale of Canadian company Forsys, owner of a uranium mine in Namibia, to Belgium company GFI. Washington feared that if GFI bought Forsys, Iran was more likely to be supplied with the uranium it sought.
5.03pm: Cables published by the Swedish press have disclosed that the US made efforts to get two Swedish companies - Colenco and Mahacos - from working with Iran on civilian nuclear reactors.
2.45pm: Gregg Mitchell at the Nation reports that Norway's Aftenposten, which was leaked a set of the cables, has shared its cache with more media organisations. Die Welt, the German paper, has been named and there are three more to come, a contact at the paper tells him.
2.17pm: There is some scepticism in the comments and it is probably worth pointing out that, for the moment, only Elmer knows what is on the CDs. WikiLeaks presumably won't until its people have had a look at them. So despite this morning's events at the Frontline Club, which proves if nothing else that Assange is still in business, we don't really know how dramatic or not their contents will be.
12.36pm: The press conference to hand over the Swiss banking data - containing the offshore account details of 2,000 prominent people and companies - is now over, but here is a summary of some of Assange's later answers.
• Assange says he wants to go the "safe route" and have professionals look at the Elmer CDs; he also says WikiLeaks has found "sources need to be protected before the information is passed out to others."
• He says some journalists can be opportunists who "twist and hype up the material and distort the historical record" so WikiLeaks makes "primary source documents available so honest journalists rise high and dishonest journalists struggle."
• He is also asked about the embassy cables release. Assange says 2.3% has been released and the process will continue over the coming months.
• Assange says WikiLeaks has had more legal threats from banks "than any other organisations". (Update Elmer said of the Swiss banking system: "I started pulling on the tail of a mouse and it became a fire-breathing dragon.")
12.16pm: Elmer holds up the two CDs of data he is to hand over to WikiLeaks. He says his relationship is not with Assange but with WikiLeaks ("I'll say it again. WikiLeaks," he says) and his intention is not to reveal individual's names but to get the information looked at. Elmer also adds that he is taking full responsibility for the data. Assange is asked when the information will be released - he says it depends how long it takes to deal with, that the organisation is "attending to other matters".
12.11pm: Assange is now talking: he is explaining how Julius Baer, Elmer's former bank, tried to use a US court in 2008 to take down the WikiLeaks.org domain. He said it was then WikiLeaks realised that the techniques it had developed to deal with Chinese censorship would be needed for operating in western countries too.
The bank lost their injunction on first ammendment (freedom of speech) grounds with WikiLeaks supported in the case by US campaigners and media organisations, Assange tells the conference. He compares this to what he calls the "McCarthyist" state of play today.
12.03pm: Esther Addley tweets that Assange has arrived at the Elmer press conference and is fighting through banks of cameras to get to the microphone.
11.50am: The Elmer press conference is underway at the Frontline Club in London. You can watch it streaming on Frontline's website or its ustream channel.
11.30am: Good morning. Here are the latest WikiLeaks developments:
• Swiss banking whistleblower Rudolf Elmer is in London today, where he intends to give WikiLeaks the "offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous" ahead of trial later this week in Switzerland. From the Observer's story yesterday:
British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, "approximately 40 politicians".
Elmer, who after his press conference will return to Switzerland from exile in Mauritius to face trial, is a former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands and employee of the powerful Julius Baer bank, which accuses him of stealing the information
• Julian Assange has said it is "no coincidence" he gave cables from the US's embassy in The Hague to two Dutch media organisations. Dutch MPs are about to vote on whether to participate in a Nato police training mission in Afghanistan. Assange said: "If there is relevant material, it has to come out before they do."
One story to come out so far is that Dutch civil servants urged US officials to pressure former Labour party leader Wouter Bos to support a continued military mission in Afghanistan. "They complain `he just doesn't get it'," the cables says of the Dutch officials attitude to Bos.
The US ambassador, Hartog Levin, suggests following tactic for the Pittsburgh G20 summit in her cable back to Washington (pdf):
A pull-aside for Bos by a senior USG official such as NSA General Jones at the Pittsburgh Summit would be beneficial. It would make Bos aware of how important we view international leadership — measured by a country's actions across the board. A pull-aside would also demonstrate to Prime Minister Balkenende our support for his efforts to get Cabinet approval of continued Dutch deployment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/17/wikileaks-latest-developments
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